1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to debarking, and more particularly to a debarking apparatus including a cutting body and a holding body for removably holding the cutting body.
2. Description of Related Art
Some types of debarking machines for removing bark from logs include a container for holding logs to be debarked, and also include one or more rotatable drums that protrude into the interior of the container. In these debarking machines, one or more debarking teeth may be mounted to an outer circumference of the rotatable drums, such that in operation, rotation of the rotatable drums may cause the debarking teeth to engage with logs that are in the container, to remove bark from the logs.
Prolonged use of these types of debarking machines may cause the debarking teeth to be abraded. Also, different configurations of the debarking teeth may be desirable for different applications. For example, more aggressive debarking teeth may be preferable in winter conditions when logs may be frozen, or for logs of harder wood species of trees. Therefore, it may be desirable for cutting teeth to include a detachable cutting portion that can be removed and replaced with a new, sharpened, or different cutting portion.
In one known arrangement, a debarking tooth includes a platform (which may also be referred to as a “shoe”) and a blade tip plate (which may also be referred to as a “cutting block”). The blade tip plate in this arrangement includes a plurality of tooth portions, and defines three through holes through a top cutting surface of the blade tip plate. Bolts may pass through respective through holes in the blade tip plate and engage respective female screw portions in the platform, to attach the blade tip plate to the platform.
A debarking machine may include hundreds of blade tip plates, and removing and replacing blade tip plates in the aforementioned type of arrangement may be cumbersome and time-consuming. The biggest problem in the field is that the wear that the top surfaces of the blade tip plates encounter in normal debarking use also affects the bolts holding the plates in place. In some cases, the wear at the bolt head is severe enough that the bolt head is not deep enough to receive a wrench to engage and rotate the bolt. If this happens, it may be necessary to weld an extension onto the bolt to provide sufficient purchase for the wrench to loosen and remove the bolt.
As well, because the through openings for receiving the fasteners are on the top cutting surface of the blade tip plate, debris from debarking (such as wood, bark, or mud, for example) may become lodged in the through openings, potentially interfering with attempts to remove or replace the blade tip plates by impeding use of tools to remove the bolts. Furthermore, it has been found that in these types of arrangements, three bolts may be required to fix the blade tip plate securely to the platform, adding to the time and expense that may be involved in removing and replacing the blade tip plates.